BLOG 377

Blog 377

Traditionally, we all look back over the year and ask ourselves, ‘Where on earth has the time gone?’ I am in the fortunate position of being able to look back over my blog (which is why I write it) and I have evidence of where some of my time went! It satisfies me greatly to witness that I have continued to be creative and to progress as a textile artist. Here it all is for you to enjoy again with a Happy New Year from Y Gorlan Plas Onn.

 

               Memorabilia box

 

                   Wedding box

  

                Box with soldered lid

                 Coiled bowl

 

               Embroidered bowl

               Granddaughter’s (8) embroidered bowl

 Granddaughter’s first quilt

 (made in collaboration with the ‘sharer of the grandchildren’)

 

            Liberty sampler quilt top

            Pos/neg workshop quilt

             Pos/neg workshop sample

 

                Felted houses

 

               Quilted Magic Tiles quilt

 

               Group quilt: The Arabesque

 

             Delectable Mountain

 

             Colour study

 

           Applique cushion, foxgloves

 

 

               Contemporary Welsh in progress

 

               6 Linus quilts 1

              6 Linus quilts 2

 

                Commissioned quilt front

 

 

              Commissioned quilt back

 

 

              Labels

 

              Daily squares

  

             Wedding signature quilt

 

 

 

              Xmas gifts

 

 

           Crazy quilt in progress

 

 

            Bag in progress

 

  

 

              Reversible cushion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

BLOG 376

Blog 376

The time is whizzing by towards Christmas and there is still so much left to organise. I have to say that I make things harder for myself as I do like to make gifts for close friends, especially those who I know will appreciate them.  I have completed the quilting on a ‘Magic Tiles’ quilt as a gift for a large family next door.

              Magic Tiles

            Quilted 
And I have been making needle cases, with Liberty fabrics, to give to some sewing friends instead of sending a card. This is a quick and effective project and I offer it to you with a Happy Christmas, to finish off the year. I bought a similar needle case many years ago at a quilt show but I can’t tell you who the maker was. I just worked out a method and have been making them on and off ever since.

NEEDLE CASE PROJECT

To make 4 needle cases, cut out 2 ½” squares from 12 different Liberty fabrics.

Iron a fusible web onto the back of them all and the cut the squares into 4 to make 1 ¼” squares.

Cut 4 pieces of medium-weight Lutrador (or similar) 7 ½” x 2 ½” and mark it with a 1 ¼” grid (12 squares).

                  Squares and lutrador
Iron the 12 different squares onto the marked squares of the Lutrador and iron in place.

                Iron in place

Use a wide zigzag and suitable thread (I used variegated thread) to sew lines between the squares, vertically and horizontally.

                Zigzag
Cut lining pieces a little bit larger than the Lutrador and place RS together.  Leave a generous gap in the middle of a long side for turning through, and sew a seam with a small stitch, 1/8” from the edge. Sew diagonally across the corners and reinforce them a couple of times.  

               Lining 

                Reinforced corners  Trim back the fabric and cut across the corners. Turn through carefully, and use a blunt tool to ease out the corners. Press well to settle the seams and to give a sharp edge. Iron under a seam where the hole is and pin to hold.
 
 

               Trim to turn through 
 

             Turn through

 Sew all around the edge, as close as possible to the edge, to close the opening and to sharpen the edges. Add some felt pages to complete.

             Press well
 
 

                 

               Add felt 

Next week there will be a review of all the things I have created during the past year, my favourite blog!

 

BLOG 375

Blog 375

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‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ tells me what’s round the corner when I see the storage boxes down from the loft. It is starting to build up here at Y Gorlan Plas Onn and it will take a few more days to get it looking just right.

 

                    Boxes

              Bags 
 
              Fireplace  

             Sideboard 

And ‘Let it snow, let I snow, let it snow!’ tells you all you need to know about the time of the year.

               Seasonal weather 
I haven’t been altogether idle this week with a waistcoat to make for Ella who is Maid 3 in ‘Aladdin School’. Katie’s costume as Mary has already been adapted by the sharer of the granddaughters. Well done Jackie!


This week I have completed all the Wedding Stars; it was something I needed to do so I could put them away until the New Year and concentrate on the preparations for Christmas.

                Wedding stars 
There is another project that is progressing slowly, day by day. One of my daughters is going through a bad patch at the moment. When she received her diagnosis, I said to her ‘When life deals you scraps, you make a quilt!’ I vaguely hoped that she might start sewing but instead she took up felting! Successfully too.

 

           Tessa’s robin


 
So I will continue with my proposed project and make a 4” patch for every day that she is ill, just to see what can come out of it. Here are the August patches at the start of the project. They are made using a positive/negative technique, the subject of my last book, and I will change the motif  and colourway every month.

 

BLOG 374

BLOG 374

 

Happy December! I think I could call this week ‘a week of progresses’. I have been striving to construct more signature stars and this project is going well now as I have get ‘stuck in’. Even when all the cutting has been done in preparation, I can generally just sew 3-4 stars an hour; they are fiddly and time consuming!  I told the bride’s mother that traditionally the quilt was finished as a gift for the second wedding anniversary (cotton) so that there was plenty of time for the hand quilting to be done (!). I couldn’t bear to have a project hanging on for so long like that so I am aiming to get the stars constructed by Xmas.

                Gold stars  

                 Maroon stars 

I have a bit of machine embroidery in progress too. But however many colours I throw at it, the stitch work is never as beautiful as the original. The shape is a bit awry too looking through the lens!
 



             Embroidery
 
More progress has been made on the Contemporary Welsh quilt. This needs to be completed for Quiltfest in Llangollen next February. Members of the Quilters’ Guild (Region 13) have been invited to exhibit and I was asked to put this quilt in rather than one of my older pieces. When I work on it I just love the experience of being saturated in colour but all sorts of other things divert my attention throughout the week so progress has been intermittent and slow. I will get there in the end. Here are some details of my progress.

            Detail 1

                  Detail 2

              Detail 3


 
This is what the quilt will look like when it is finished. All the pieces are being worked independently and there is still a lot of stitchery ahead, not to forget the soldering detail. I have yet to decide how these pieces with be attached to each other. Onwards and upwards!

 

               In progress

               Close up